The Cambodia National Federation of Building and Woodworkers on Tuesday denounced the firing of an additional 36 construction workers at the site of a hotel adjoining Phnom Penh’s NagaCorp Casino.
At a press conference opposite the incomplete, 13-story hotel, CFBW president Sok Sovandeith said the company had failed to abide by an agreement reached Friday morning pledging to raise salaries and rehire 12 construction workers fired from the building site in recent weeks.
The dismissals sparked a strike that began Thursday. “Today we’re protesting to demand what the company agreed to with us [on Friday],” Sok Sovandeith said.
“They are not respecting the agreements,” he said. Moeun Tola, project coordinator for the Building and Woodworkers International labor organization, which established the CFBW, said over the weekend that after negotiations on Friday with CCAG, the contractor hired by NagaCorp to build the hotel, an additional 36 workers involved in the work stoppage were fired. CCAG representative Pin Seing said in an interview on Monday that his company had dismissed the workers on Friday because they were no longer needed at the site.
“We have no more work, so they must be reduced,” he said, adding that those who were dismissed had performed poorly.
